Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-06-16
THE DUTIES OF BOYS.
Why They Should BE Taught to Be Help
full Around tho House.

fui Around the House.
Teach the boys to be helpful in the
house. Not only seeing that there is
plenty of coal in the box. and kindling
wood brought into the house, but also
that whatever repairing there is to be
done, they shall do it to the best of
their ability. Few boys are without
some idea of mechanical work, and can
repair a chair or table or put up a
shelf quite nicely. There should be a
set of carpenters tools in every house,
and if there are no boys in the family
very often the girls or the mother can
handle a hammer or screw driver al
most as well as most men. and great
deal better than some, without taking
her thumb for the nail, as it is gener-
ally supposed she does. There are
some very good mechanics among our
working housekeepers. who can hang
pictures, put up curtains or shelves
equally as well as their brothers or
husbands. and in many instances
great deal better. In the matter of
picture-hanging it IS usually admitted
that most women have better idea
and more artistic taste in the arrange
ment of the different sizes on the wall
than the majority of men. and, conse-
quently, prefer doing such things
themselves rather than having to sug-
gest how they should be done. To be
sure it is useful thing for a woman to
she be left without man to do her re-
pairing, it is consolation for her to
think that she need not depend on a
neighbor, but when the time comes
she can mend and make whatever she
needs But she should never hang
pictures or curtains unless actually
obliged to do so, for this work is not
suitable for any woman, and she will
be sure to feel its effects when she has
forgotten all about her mechanical Ia
bors.
When there are boys in family such
work as the above should be theirs.
With few suggestions from mother in
regard to the arrangement they will
soon learn to do this very acceptably.
All healthy boys like to work, and the
kind that they prefer is usually some
thing in which they can use hammer
and nails, as the use of these tools
comes as natural to boys as the needle
does to the girls. A handy boy around
the house is great help in keeping
the furniture in repair. IF there is a
shelf wanted for mothers plants he is
always delighted to make ii, and
usually it is done very well and cor
rectly. If skirt board is what is
wanted. or bread board. or, in fact,
any of the many articles of this kind so
much needed in the household, a word
to the amateur carpenter intimatin g
the article needed, and in short
time he is at work with rule, plane
and saw, trying to evolve to his
and the housekeeper's satisfaction
whatever is desired. Where there is
one of these young mechanics in a
family. the furniture is never out of
repair, for he will attempt to mend al
most any thing. and. though he may
not do it as we'll as man who makes
his living at it, he usually succeeds in
fixing it somehow. He is always in
venting something and very often
this takes the shape of a convenient
and useful article for the house.
Another kind of work that it is well
to teach the boys to do. so that when
there is a necessity they will know how
to do it, is a little homework. ''Oh. "
some of you say, 1--WE don't expect the
boys to do that" Very likely not, but
it will not harm them to know how to
wash dishes or sweep the floor. II
there is no girl in the family, any boy
ought to know how to wash dishes, so
that when the mother is tired out or
i'll. he can Tighten her work good
deal by aiding her in this way.
Many boys are naturally in
clined to be helpful in this
kind of work, and will willingly aid
mother and sister when they
are working very hard or when they
are in hurry, but they are usually
very sensitive and are timid of being
ridiculed by their companions. Very
often grown people laugh at boy
who, with his mothers apron before
him, is helping her by washing or wip
ing the dishes. This is very wrong
for no person likes to be laughed at
and least of all is this true of boy
and, instead of ridiculing him. h
should be commended for his thought
fuIness for his mothers and sister
comfort This ridIculing children
does a great deal of mischief, ant
should never be INDUCED in by grow
people. Some boys will get aloni
nicely while washing dishes until som
neighbor is announced, then they bur
riedly snatch off the apron they hav
before them and tuck it away out c
sight, fearful if they are seen doin
homework that they may be Gale
.betties" or ..sissies. Many boys wi
not willingly do work of this kind undo
any consideration, not because they d
scnot pwant to help mother, but the
have horror of being called by eithe
of the above names. They do not cal
that their companions call them 81
but they dread the ridioule of oldt
people.
Grown people of this stamp are a
ways the. most selfish of all peopl
They seldom have thought Nr ar
one but themselves, and never think
such thing as trying to ease another
burden. They are usually the on
that make the most fuss in the wor
and do the least good. There is I
danger that they have ever been Gale